Badlands is an area where wind and water has eroded away at a big elevation step in the plains and left some really cool "mini mountains." The thing I really enjoyed about this was the contrast. In one spot you have verdant green grass-land and then off a little cliff you have desert spines and ridges.
The grasslands themselves in this area are green, rolling, and beautiful... among the best we've seen (unlike boring Southern Wyoming)
We hit the road to the Black Hills and eventually Mt. Rushmore. Mt. Rushmore is about as American as it comes and you would be pretty hard pressed to not feel patriotic here. One thing I didn't expect was how much I appreciated the sculpture as art. I can't imagine the effort required to make granite look so smooth and realistic. We have better close-up photos, but I thought the below better characterized the nature of the patriotism of the place (those are the 50 state flags).
We drove through South Dakota's Black Hills next. It was very refreshing to be back in mountains and this drive is pretty awesome with a handful of really neat one-lane tunnels and bridges.
We found a good campsite by Custer State Park and watched and listened to thunder and lightning sloooowly approach. We managed to eat dinner before a pounding hail storm came through. Much of the hail was between dime and quarter sized. Yikes. Later in the night we would be awakened by a similar storm but our tent performed wonderfully and we're dry, happy, and now in Salt Lake City after a day of driving.
No comments:
Post a Comment